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UK esports organisation Into the Breach have won the Beyond Spring Invitational, a tournament that took place on the UK & Ireland Circuit (UKIC).
This saw four teams invited (including Into the Breach, as well as Fambit, Eko Esports and Dusty), and another four making it through a series of qualifiers (The Last Resort, Temperate, Recognised Talent and Blvkhvnd).
The Beyond Spring Invitational 2022 event secured coverage on well-known CSGO stats and news site HLTV, it was streamed from the Endpoint Twitch channel and is named after the naturally sourced focus supplement brand Beyond NRG.
In the quarter finals, Into the Breach, Blvkhvnd, Eko and Fambit progressed, with the latter beating Eko and Into the Breach beating Blvkvnd 2-0.
Into the Breach then defeated Fambit in the final, 16-2 on Ancient and 16-13 on Mirage. The result was a repeat of the recent i68 final, where Into the Breach beat Fambit on the first UK LAN Insomnia stage in almost three years, though that was a best-of-five and this invitational featured best-of-three playoff matches.
The aim of the Beyond Spring Invitational is to ‘take cash cups to the next level’. It had a prize pool of £1,800, while the two qualifiers each had a £100 prize, and the playoffs took place from April 30th to May 1st 2022.
The Beyond Spring Invitational also featured a host of broadcast talent, including UK casters CodyCasts, SneakyBeaky, GrimyRannarr, BDog, ZolaSMH, Cmd64, DanChan and ReaperSteve (thanks Liquipedia).
And the event’s MVP (most valuable player) was Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield, one of the most well-known pro CSGO players from the UK.
The UK & Ireland Circuit is a collection of Faceit hubs designed to increase the potential of the UK and Irish CSGO scene. It offers more than £4,000 in monthly prizes and is owned by UK esports organisation Endpoint, who said they’re looking to build on these activities.
Endpoint CEO and co-owner Adam Jessop told Esports News UK: “Endpoint own the UK & Ireland Circuit as a sub-brand and therefore it was executed by us, however every care has been taken to ensure that it is an independent event and free of any conflicts of interest.
“This is the first invitational event we have done on this scale. We are looking to run events quite regularly and are always thinking how we can make it into a more consistent circuit with more structure and open to more teams at all levels.”
Adam Jessop, Endpoint
“The UKIC for us is really our main vehicle to support grassroots esports and Counter-Strike at a national level, so Endpoint didn’t take part as a team to avoid the potential conflict of interest. We successfully compete in the ESL Premiership (Endpoint recently picked up a ninth CSGO title) and other events against other UK teams, this is a chance for them to battle each other. Our main team were also having a break following their competing in the RMR in Romania recently.
“The next Beyond Invitational will be in the coming months, we are looking to run events quite regularly and are always thinking how we can make it into a more consistent circuit with more structure and open to more teams at all levels.”
Beyond NRG has supported the Endpoint CeX-owned UK & Ireland Circuit over the past year, and this Beyond NRG Endpoint partnership is one that will continue over the next two years.
Find out more about Beyond NRG products at www.beyondnrg.com.
Related content: Insomnia 68 interview with Endpoint’s COO on UK CS dominance, being profitable with full-time staff and the importance of sponsors in UK esports
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
